Final Facts

Well time is up and only three entries came in for the contest. They were: 1327 kilometers from Trish, 1500 kilometers from Jay and 1997 kilometers from Donna (via email). The actual kilometers driven - get this – 3447. (Nova Scotia isn’t as small as you might think!) SOOO… no guesses all that close, but Donna is the winner. She is a double winner because she leaves for the Maritimes in 6 days!!

The blog thing has been fun and I wouldn’t hesitate doing it again, or encouraging any of you to try it, especially for a vacation ‘journal’. It’s extra fun knowing that people are, in a way, traveling with you, and again I thank my faithful commenters.

I am now working on a photo album of the trip and hope to share it with some of you who have already been on part of the journey.

I would encourage anyone to visit this part of Canada. I have to say that I came back home somehow feeling more “Canadian”, if that makes any sense. I will never again think about Acadian culture, Celtic music, fishing villages, or even Anne of Green Gables in the same way. Our Canadian heritage and culture is so much broader than our western cities or prairie life. It’s always a bonus to see and feel one more part of it.

Top Tens

About the request to see how the flowers had fared during our absence.... you can see Glenn did a good job of taking care of everything.

Now, as I said yesterday, a last (well- almost last – explain later) blog on the subject of the Maritime vacation. I promised my list of top ten today, and in fact, I am expanding that a little to include three ‘top tens’. It was a difficult process, doing all that choosing, but here goes.

TOP TEN SIGHTS AND EXPERIENCES

10. The Pier 21 experience, particularly the unique video presentation.

9. Bed and Breakfast experience in Truro, Nova Scotia. It felt unusual, to say the least, to sit down to a ‘multicultural’ breakfast experience and listen to unique heritage stories, but realize in the end, as one of the guests said, “It’s a good day for all of us, and time to go live it.”

8. The Ceilidh in Baddeck, Cape Breton. Culture, music, dance and language are all bound together in a package and tied with a ribbon of immense pride.

7. Digby Scallops. It is an interesting experience to eat scallops fresh from the sea overlooking the wharf where more scallop trawlers are coming in with their catches of the day.

6. Charlottetown harbour and downtown walks. This small, historic city seems to welcome tourists with open arms and at the same time, make sure everyone remembers that this is where the historic documents declaring Canada a country were signed.

5. Gilbert and Anne: The Musical. Make-believe or not, for 2 ½ hours I was convinced that it truly was Anne Shirley on that stage.

4. The Cabot Trail. I loved the diversity of this stretch of road. Everything from a sandy beach that stretches far into the distance, to rocky cliffs, to look-offs where you can see miles of ocean and shores (and imagine whales jumping!), to remote fishing villages, to the quaint Acadian village of Cheticamp – and all can be seen within about 5 hours!

3. Hopewell Rocks. The feeling of walking on the ocean floor and looking up to see evidence of thousands of years of erosion – amazing.

2. The town of Lunenburg. Walking through the narrow streets lined with old buildings makes you feel like you are living in history – or at least gives an appreciation for it!

1. Peggy’s Cove. There’s just nothing like it. I have seen many pictures of it previously and none do it justice. Hearing the waves crash on the smooth granite rocks, looking up to the lighthouse, watching a fishing boat come in…. it seems like another life. (and I suppose it would be!)

TOP TEN LAUGHS

10. Listening to service people say, “shore” instead of ‘sure’ at least three times a day, in every Maritime province we visited.

9. Seeing the giant fiddle placed on Sydney’s harbour - so it’s the first thing cruise ship passengers will see and hear when they come into the harbour.

8. Having a young 18 year old roll by the ceilidh on his skateboard and stop in to sing a song in Gaelic.

7. Taking a one hour unintentional detour to get from Dartmouth to Halifax harbour, and thus saving the 75 cents to cross the toll bridge which would have got us there in about 5 minutes.

6. Listening to the story about the current Yarmouth, Nova Scotia mayor, who, when asked how he felt about euthanasia, responded, “I want to go on record to say I care about the youth right here in Yarmouth.”

5. Having a fellow tourist offer to take our picture in front of a lighthouse, and realizing after thanking him that he didn’t have a clue what he was doing. We imagined him taking pictures of other tourists all over the place, and having them be one big blur.

4. Rob asking for a ‘warm up’ of his coffee during a breakfast meal, and having the waitress take his cup and scurry off to the microwave. (found out later it was her first day on the job.)

3. Meeting two people from New Brunswick on the Cabot Trail and having one of them say to me, “So you’re the kind of Canadian that says ‘eh’!” (Yep, I said it…)

2. Pondering on the restaurant name “Large Marge’s”… and then potentially spotting her (and her bag) throughout the rest of the trip.

1. Doing such ridiculous things as lie in front of a tank, all for the sake of the Judge Jay competition. Who started that anyway?

TOP TEN PHOTOS (in no particular order)

I totally loved doing the blog journal on this trip. Sharing the experiences with you – and even thinking about how I was going to do that throughout the day - made it twice the fun. Thank you to Jay, my most faithful commenter (and judge) and also to Paula, Trish, Wes, Heather, Kathryn, Dawna, Grant, Sharon, and Janice. One last question for you and anyone else out there who may be a reader.

How many kilometers do you think we drove during the 14 days?

Simply put your guess in a comment, and the closest guess wins a small prize (and hopefully a visit and cup of coffee, tea or juice…. although, I guess I would like a visit with everyone…) I will give the answer in a very brief blog a couple of days from now after the guesses have poured in.

Fancy Final Food and Forever Flights

Our last breakfast was definitely an experience to remember. Nelly and Maarten, hosts of our Bed and Breakfast in Truro, have only lived in Canada for 10 months. They left careers of teaching and engineering to “do something completely different” in a new country. Nelly served a breakfast of baked grapefruit with custard, some kind of baked egg dish, and ham. The guests around the table other than us were Eric, a 7th grade teacher from Holland, a Scottish minister and his wife from the Annapolis Valley, and Nellie and Jean, two adventurous older ladies from 'Baaa..ston'. Conversation was interesting and unhurried, and it was a good thing we didn’t have to leave for the airport until 10:15 – of course that would be 7:15 Regina time.

Note the picture of the lobsters we picked up to bring home. They were plentiful at the Halifax airport. Now if you believed that…. (I mean the part about bringing them home.)



I’m writing this on the plane during our final leg of the flight from Edmonton to Regina. I’m not sure that’s the most time efficient route, but that’s how it worked out. When we get to Regina it will be almost 12 hours since we left Truro and that’s a long time to survive on cookies and pretzels. We did stop briefly in Toronto as well as Edmonton, but not really long enough to have anything to eat before the boarding call process began again.

I’ve started my top ten list for tomorrow’s final blog, but it was more difficult than I thought and I will finalize tomorrow after a night’s rest.

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Home again… welcomed by a wall of heat and humidity, it seems. (And by Glenn and Katie as well) Lawns and flowers have been inspected and all is well. It does feel rather nice to be back at home, even though I know many tasks, such as picking beans and doing laundry, await for tomorrow. And yes, I WILL do that final blog as well.

Tides, Truro and Tidal Bore

Fortunately it was not raining this morning, and we were able to explore the Hopewell Rocks (Bay of Fundy) in beautiful calm weather. It was quite amazing to walk on the ocean floor and look up to observe how high tidal waters have worn away the rocks into “flowerpot” formations, as they are called. The area has a number of walking trails and we spent about 2 ½ hours there. We arrived right at low tide, and by the time we left it had risen significantly. When the tide is at its highest, the water is just a bit below the trees you see on top of the rock formations. At that time you can rent kayaks and paddle around - and in some cases, through - the rocks. You will notice that today the person offering to take our picture did a slightly better job than the other fellow at the lighthouse. In the photo we are backing onto HUGE mudflats (low tide) and we are about to explore rock formations which are to our left.

It was interesting to me how little English we heard both in Moncton and at the Hopewell Rock site. Again, my French was practically useless, of course, not that we had to try to communicate in anything but English. (I did, however, press the correct button in the hotel elevator when asked to by a fellow French occupant!) In the one and only restaurant we went to, we were greeted in both French and English, and then communication continued in whichever language we responded. Rob dared me to say “bonjour” and then receive a French menu, but I didn’t go for it - thereby, I know, forfeiting a great number of points.

After the rocks it was on to Truro, our final stop. We went to the Tidal Bore (as opposed to Total Bore) site here, which is essentially the tide coming in to a river that is flowing out. At certain times of day you can see the two meet, create a wave (no tidal wave or anything) and then it appears that the river changes direction as the tide comes in very quickly. It was kind of funny as a whole bunch of people gather on a riverbank and sit or stand and stare at the river --- and then all of a sudden you can see the tide literally ‘rolling in’.

I figured out that we are ‘land’ people after all, as for our last Nova Scotia meal we had steak and ribs…. not all that maritime, is it! Even seafood enjoyment must come to an end.

Tonight we are staying at another bed and breakfast place, with friendly Dutch hosts who moved here a year ago and bought this place. I’m sure we’ll have a good breakfast before we head out to the airport tomorrow. I will write two more blog entries after this. One, when we arrive home tomorrow night, and two, the following day when I will do a top ten of the trip or something of that nature. Stay tuned….and thanks for the comments.

Moisture in Moncton

We woke up to pouring rain this morning. I was glad that we had decided not to stay another night in Summerside, as I’m not sure how much sightseeing would be enjoyable in this weather. However, we’re not complaining, as almost every other day (except for the whale searching morning) has been beautiful.

I realized today that I didn’t say anything about the “Anne and Gilbert” musical experience in yesterday’s blog. First of all, let me just say that although I probably did enjoy it more than Rob, (he did say it was ‘good’), he should receive no points for attending. Anyway, it was extremely well done, in a beautiful harbourfront theatre (indoors). The girl who played Anne was 19 years old, and as far as I was concerned, looked EXACTLY as Anne should look – and acted equally as appropriately. Gilbert wasn’t too hard to watch either! The story unfolded -with great music and dancing of course - as in the second and third book of Montgomery’s Anne series.

The other thing I didn’t mention yesterday was the location of the buildings on stilts (picture). That is the Summerside waterfront which consists of small shops and restaurants and is right next to the theatre.

We have now said good-bye to Summerside, PEI and hello to New Brunswick. The drive across the Confederation Bridge (now ten years old) was an experience. Although the visibility wasn’t great (see photo), it definitely felt like we were driving across the ocean, as the wind gusted and the bridge seemed unending. Almost 14 kilometers is a long drive on a bridge!

By the time we got to Moncton Rob was pretty tired of driving in the rain. Fortunately we found our downtown hotel quite easily. It has a number of features I’ve never experienced before in a hotel, including the provision of aromatherapy linen spray, an eye mask, and a CD which gives tips on getting the best possible sleep as well as 20 minutes or so of ‘ultimately relaxing’ music. I’m not sure if listening to it will be necessary or not, as apparently there is a Roughrider game on tonight beginning at 9:30 eastern. Maybe it depends on the outcome of the game. Downtown Moncton is again fairly old, with some new buildings mixed in with the historic buildings. (Photo is of Tim Horton's) It doesn’t have the character of Charlottetown or Halifax, I’d say, but then maybe I wasn’t impressed because we were walking in 100% humidity and it felt like we were in a greenhouse the entire time. We decided to simply get a pita for supper and eat it in our room. Even Rob admitted he wanted no more seafood for a while. (Note picture of the mussels he enjoyed yesterday.) Now.. if only we can stay awake long enough for that football game. I also hope it’s worth staying up for!

Cavendish and Coastal Trails

It was a rainy morning when we set out for Cavendish, but by the time we got to Green Gables, the sun was peeking out and it was a pleasant day. Cavendish is probably the most ‘commercial’ area we’ve seen, with theme parks, amusement parks, and things like that. We had a little difficulty finding Anne’s home at first, mistaking the post office for the house! (Everything around there either has green gables or is named ‘green gables something’.) For those Anne fans out there, we did the whole walk including The Haunted Wood, Lover’s Lane, and Balsam Hollow. Rob was a good sport about the whole thing, and even had another raspberry cordial.

After the Cavendish experience we went for a drive in the north west part of PEI and found the beautiful and often photographed West Point Lighthouse – the only lighthouse that actually contains hotel rooms. We waded into the water (much warmer than along the Cape Breton coast) and were immediately surrounded by many large jellyfish.

Rob wanted to experience a second maritime lobster supper so we found a restaurant back in Summerside specializing in lobster (not that hard to find, as you can imagine) and he had his fill. I wasn’t quite so adventurous and had ‘lobster roll’ which is kind of like chicken salad, except with lobster instead of chicken. We decided this morning that we have done enough island exploring to get the ‘flavour’ of PEI and so we are cutting our stay here by one day and crossing the Confederation Bridge into New Brunswick tomorrow.

Scenic Seaside Escape to Summerside

I liked Charlottetown so much it was kind of difficult to leave. However, we did leave, after another brunch (smaller than yesterday) at Cora’s. I noticed that franchises were available and I think someone in Saskatchewan should seriously consider it!

We drove down the coast to Summerside, where we will stay for the next three nights. Everything is so close that it sometimes makes map reading difficult. The scale is rather different than other maps and a few times today we were past a turnoff before I was even looking for it. Oh well, it made for some extra scenic driving on a beautiful sunny day.

I am constantly amazed at how the island seems to be fairly flat, then make an abrupt drop to the sea, as if some giant cookie cutter cut out a patch of land, iced it with green and left the sides bright red. We stopped at one historic site complete with two lighthouses and some trails down by the ocean. A man walking by offered to take our picture next to a lighthouse. He proceeded to back up so far that I was sure we would be no than specks in the distance, and then called back, “Can’t seem to get it to work!” Rob ran back and showed him what to do. The result is the blurriest picture you could imagine. I have no idea how you can go that far wrong on a very automatic digital camera.

We also stopped by a beach – which was nothing at all like Regina Beach! Again, grass right up to the edge, then a steep drop, and bright red sand. The water was very shallow at the edge, and appeared to be red as well. Note how ‘busy’ the area is. We have definitely NOT had any crowds to deal with anywhere at all. (Though Green Gables is still coming!)

We are now taking a little break before heading into Summerside (we are staying about 3 minutes out of the city), looking around, and then going to the Anne and Gilbert musical. I have started to get Rob up to speed on the story! He even had some raspberry cordial to drink today – perhaps to get into the spirit of things.

By the way, yesterday’s concert was great. It turns out that the guy playing guitar is also a CBC radio host and he was an excellent storyteller. I’ll try to remember some of his jokes to tell when we get home.

Thanks so much for the 2 ½ points. It was all worth it. I don’t know what the next days will hold but we’ll see what we can do. For those of you reading and not commenting – anything I can do to make you respond?

Charlottetown Shores

You may think that from the alliterative title I am going to talk about the shores of the Charlottetown harbour today, but not so. We have noted, both in Nova Scotia and PEI, that “shore” means ‘certainly’ or ‘yes’… as in “Shore, I’ll get you more coffee.” Part of the culture, I suppose. Other less profound cultural things we have noticed:

• Flying a flag is highly recommended for all homeowners. Flagpoles are attached to the house at a 45-degree angle. Flying three flags is even better – Canada, Nova Scotia, and Acadian • A riding lawn mower is a must. All properties not urban have HUGE lawn areas, precisely mowed • When a local is greeting someone, it is important to immediately follow the hello, with, “Soooo…. Where ya from?”

Today we walked through much of historic downtown Charlottetown. It is extremely well maintained and neat and tidy with descriptive signs everywhere. We spotted both John A MacDonald and Anne of Green Gables (they were not together) chatting with guests. It was interesting also to watch and listen to a variety of international travelers. We tried not to laugh too hard at the tourist wearing the shirt that proclaimed, “I AM in shape. Round is a shape”. (Possibly Large Marge’s husband?) I want you to know that I sacrificed all pride to lie in front of the tank/cannon on the harbourfront boardwalk near the military headquarters. This competition is simply getting out of hand, but whatever will keep you reading….

Other photo explanations - Rob with potential new job as Charlottetown fire chief; me in front of our new summer home (white) in Charlottetown. (actually the Lieutenant Governor's residence)

Tonight we are going to hear Kendra MacGillivray and Bruce Rainnie – apparently a combination of guitar, Celtic fiddle, and comedy. First we will probably have something to eat at a sidewalk café in the downtown area, where we are staying. I won’t require much, as the other meal I had today was a brunch at a place that is apparently the “best breakfast and lunch spot in PEI”. I am including a photo of the crepe. Please note the size in comparison to the knife and fork – and no, I did not eat all of it.

Pictures, Pictou, and PEI

Baddeck was blanketed in fog as we left this morning, but it didn’t take long to drive out of it and into the sunshine. After stopping to buy a CD of Celtic music before leaving Cape Breton, we crossed the causeway (the only connection to the rest of Nova Scotia) and drove to Pictou, where we toured The Hector, a replica of a ship that brought the first Scottish immigrants to Canada in 1773. How 189 of them survived on this ship for 12 weeks is almost beyond belief. Even the Captain’s quarters were tiny – note picture of Rob not able to stand upright.

Pictou is near the ferry to PEI, where we went next and enjoyed the leisurely 75-minute ride across the Northumberland Strait. (I did not get seasick!) The red soil really stood out as the ferry neared land. We drove to Charlottetown through rolling countryside, which might have looked much like parts of Saskatchewan except for the colour of the earth. Charlottetown is a beautiful, historic city. (I’m figuring out that there are many more historic sites in Atlantic Canada than in the prairies. One of the photos is the restaurant in Pictou where we had lunch. It was built in 1810! The other photo of the old looking building is the inn where we are staying.) We walked along the harbour and stopped at an information place to get a map of the downtown area. There we talked to a young lady at the information booth who was obviously proud of her city and explained that the fathers of confederation had signed their documents in a particular building about a block from where we stood. We asked if that was now the provincial legislature. She paused. We said, “This is the capital city of PEI, is it not? Yes, she knew that it was. Again we asked where the government met for sessions. She was silent again, and then said, “I don’t think I’ve ever been asked that before!” Interesting. I hope that none of my students live in the city of Regina without knowing where Saskatchewan members of the legislature meet, but then, perhaps I am over confident.

Just a note about Large Marge. I thought for a moment we may have spotted her on the ferry, but we were not quite close enough to get a positive ID. However, later during a walk along the Charlottetown harbour, we definitely came across her bag hanging in front of a store called Bagmania. Note photo. And speaking of photos, I don’t think my photo with John A. MacDonald is going to pull any high score, but I’ll keep trying. Tomorrow is ‘explore Charlottetown and area day’. I think our days on the island may be a little more low key and relaxing than those in Nova Scotia, but that may depend on how many places I discover where I can learn about something new. I have already warned Rob that we will be doing the Green Gables/Avonlea thing as well, and I will try and give him a crash course on the writings of L.M. Montgomery in the next couple of days. Thanks for the points for title alliteration. I’ll keep trying.